I have a very strange Master (Star Wars/SI) EPI-EPII
- Thread starter shadenight123
- Start date
Oh I am slain!
Wynaut?
- Location
- Tatooine
Almost forget to mention this, since the chapter ending was both awesome and heartwarming. It was a bit unclear why Mr. Fluffles led them all the way to that carcass and the two Nightsisters. And why the Nightsisters were there. I definitely can come up with explanatory theories, but the event does feel a bit random if there's no follow-up official explanation.
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Because that's where his trail ends? Mr. Fluffles isn't a real cat, so it was tracking him through the force, not by his scent. Then he had those nodes, so it couldn't track him, anymore.
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Chapter Twenty-Eight
- Location
- https://discord.gg/z9tBvbh
Chapter Twenty-Eight
When they pulled into the Jedi Temple with the shuttle Anakin had 'acquired', Ahsoka had expected to find a Jedi to talk to within the next five minutes. Instead, it turned out there wasn't a single Jedi of the High Council in the temple to begin with. Now that would have been strange on any day, but what made it stranger was that there had been no warning at all, not even for Anakin -who in fact, had been in the Temple until that very morning.
"They've gone to the Senate to ensure peace talks proceed smoothly," Knight Olin said. "They'll begin shortly in the afternoon."
"We've got to hurry then," Ahsoka said, only for Anakin to look at Ferus with hesitation. "Tell him or tell him not!" Ahsoka snapped at Anakin's hesitation, before rushing back towards the hangar. Anakin would have rebuked the padawan, but she was already gone out of sight.
Time was of the essence, and as Ahsoka ignited the engines of the speeder once more, she barely could wait for Knight Skywalker. In the end, Knight Ferus roped in Knight Darra, and instead of two Jedi, four Jedi departed at a breakneck pace through Coruscant's now heavily intensified traffic due to the peace talks.
"Let me drive!" Anakin snapped. "You're going too slow!"
"Don't let him drive!" Ferus yelled back as he gripped on to the safety belt of the Speeder, while Ahsoka simply gave even more gas.
"Please don't crash," Darra prayed, "Please don't crash," she kept repeating as Ahsoka rolled her eyes and executed a perfect spinning maneuver to avoid crashing in a television droid floating too close for her tastes.
When they arrived -in less than ten minutes- near the Senate's building, Ferus Olin dropped his knees on the pavement of the place and began to breathe in and out deeply.
"Well," Anakin said, "You didn't learn driving from Night," he acquiesced. "I approve."
"I want Master Shade to drive me back home," Darra said in a tiny whisper, "I refuse to let you drive ever again. I'm pulling rank."
"Let's...let's just get going," Ahsoka said with a tiny, nervous smile. They stepped inside the senate and then were brought all the way up, past an ever growing crowd of people, to where the Senator's Office was.
You are Chancellor Palpatine. Ahsoka blinked. Had that voice been her Master's? It had come from...from somewhere around her, maybe in the crowd? And you are about to have the worst day in your entire life.
Ahsoka blinked.
You are nervous because of the attack on the Jedi Temple. You are nervous because things aren't going according to your plan. You are nervous, and you are about to make the worst mistake of your entire life.
Ahsoka winced.
She looked at the Jedi of the High Council reunited around the chancellor, delivering the final points of their plans for defending and intervening in case Count Dooku tried something shady.
The Jedi will take position in a circle around the main stage. You will be protected from Dooku. You are angry at some of the senators too. The head of the banking clan has disappeared, dropped off the radar. The Trading Guild and the richest of the arm dealers have gone off the map too. You can't help but feel unease, since they were senators firmly in your camp.
Master Yoda nodded at their arrival. "Master Yoda," Ahsoka said, "We're sorry to importunate you now, but-"
"There were assassins in the underground of Coruscant," Knight Skywalker said. "We thought it best to come and warn you of them," he added.
"Were they Separatists?" the Chancellor asked, his voice grave. "And have they been dealt with?"
"Yes," Ahsoka said suddenly, catching Anakin's words before they could come out of his mouth. "They have been dealt with, Chancellor."
Anakin looked at her, and then nodded. "They won't be a threat any longer," he added, and yet the Chancellor was even less at ease than before.
You are a Sith Master, and your pupil is no longer answering your calls. You feel betrayed, and you call for a certain Witch to deliver a curse, and a warning, and keep the war going. You have hair from the young Skywalker, and so you decide to use it. It is unfortunate, and lacks grace and finesse, but you're being backed against the wall and are starting to grow even more nervous.
Your plan fails. Now you are no longer nervous.
You are afraid.
Ahsoka watched the Chancellor leave his office to begin addressing the senate, and as he did, she realized that Knight Skywalker was looking at her with a look of utter puzzlement. Master Yoda simply nodded at the unspoken words that she wanted to have with him, and as he began to wobble his way to his assigned position, Ahsoka followed behind him. Anakin instead went with Master Obi-Wan, while Knight Ferus and Darra were kindly sent with Master Mace.
"Questions you must hold," Master Yoda said crisply as they stopped in one of the empty senator platforms -assigned specifically to the Jedi overseeing the peace talk exchanges. Half the senate was filled with bright white lights, to signal the Republic side, while on the other side flickering crimson lights showed the Separatists' ambassadors which had followed Count Dooku. In the middle, cameras went on as the Chancellor addressed his public.
You are a Sith Master. You have planned for every step of the conflict. You believed the loyalty of your apprentice absolute, yet now, here he is, looking at you with a smug smirk as if he knew something you don't know. What has he planned? What can he do to stop you? There is no one who knows your true identity except for him, but he has no proof. He cannot use it. He has committed so many evil acts to prove his loyalty, the Jedi will never forgive him. The Rule of Two is absolute. Only a Sith would be able to move him away from you, but for what purpose? No matter. You will make the Chosen One your apprentice and everything will be fine. Cameras are everywhere. If Count Dooku attacks, you will swiftly escape and point the blame on the Separatists. You have your personal guards, and he has but droids.
If only the assassins hadn't failed, you could call off the peace talk by incensing the Republic Side.
It dawned on Ahsoka.
It dawned like a ray of light and her eyes began to widen slowly as time seemed to slow.
Time seemed to slow as she realized just how true Master Shen-Jon's words had been. She realized just how much truth there was in the words of Mad Alice, and how much misdirection had been neatly laid down when she finally connected all the dots delivered in front of her.
"When you remove the impossible," Master Yoda said, quoting someone without a doubt because he was speaking normally, "all that remains, no matter how improbable," he continued, and gave her a sad look, "is the truth."
The music. There is music playing. You have done your part, and talked of peace. You are looking at Count Dooku, sure his proposal for peace will be refused no matter the terms.
"We offer unconditional surrender!" Count Dooku exclaimed loudly, shocking the entirety of the Republic Senate into silence. Both hands raised, Count Dooku spoke crisply over the now deafening silence of the room. "The Republic was corrupt when this war began, make no mistake, and we shall not refuse that truth! But now, now it's no longer the case!" here he laughed, "The reason for this war is now over with!"
The Separatist side wasn't protesting the terms. No, it was more like they were applauding them. Ahsoka's eyes snapped to where they stood, and it was then that she realized that the droids weren't safeguarding the senators.
They were pointing their guns at their backs, holding them in check and making sure they played their part well.
You are Chancellor Palpatine. You are a Sith Master. Your plan to purge the Jedi Order is just about to go down the drain. Thousand of years, suddenly gone in a cesspit. And someone is playing a horrible piece of music in the air. Then words start to come.
And as they arrive, you recognize them. As they break through Count Dooku's speech, making him silent. As they do come, you think it can't be but a lie. It has to be a lie.
It has to be a horrible, horrible, lie.
Nobody should know those words. Nobody should, and yet someone does.
"Tell me what you regard as your greatest strength, so I will know how best to undermine you," the voice was that of a male Muun, and as it spoke, Chancellor Palpatine looked visibly uneasy. More than visibly, he looked at Count Dooku as the Count simply kept smiling smugly, as if he knew what was going on. "Tell me of your greatest fear, so I will know which I must force you to face," the voice continued, and Count Dooku's grin blossomed in a full, all-teeth visible, smile. "Tell me what you cherish most, so I will know what to take from you."
A motion suddenly passed throughout the screens of the Republic, and it beeped to live in front of the Chancellor's face. It was a simple motion.
A very, simple, motion.
Execute Order Sixty-Five.
"And tell me what you crave, so that I might deny you." The voice finished speaking as the Chancellor's guards raised their guns at the Chancellor's head and barked a crisp order.
"Chancellor! By the order of the Republic's Senate, you are to renounce your post!"
"What is this?" Palpatine whispered, eyes wide as he looked around. "What is happening? Why is this-Senator Organa, what is the meaning of this!?"
And Senator Organa lifted up a holo-cron disk, a holo-cron disk that showed Palpatine use the Force Shock lighting to torture to death a Male Muun. It showed Palpatine gloat. It showed him speak, and speak he did through it.
"You lost the game on the very first day you chose to train me to rule by your side—or better still under your thumb. Teacher, yes, and for that I will be eternally grateful. But Master—never." The crisp voice that came through the air resulted in a chorus of shocked exclamations and reactions of surprise from the Republic side, although by that moment, many a Separatist Senator was watching the proceedings with utter dread in their eyes as they finally realized, as it finally dawned on them, just how many of them had been played for fools.
"H-How," Palpatine gasped, clutching the counter of his platform with a hand. "How." He snarled louder. His gaze on Dooku.
"Surrender the post sir!" the clone troopers on the platform commanded once more, "Or we will have to-g-gah!"
You are Darth Sidious, and everything you have planned for has failed. You thought it was all perfect. You thought there would be no enemies left. You thought everyone was under your thumb, and your latest enemy in the Jedi Temple defeated by his own Dark Side, and severed from the Force. You thought yourself safe. You thought yourself about to grasp victory, in just a few more years.
How wrong you were. How wrong you were. Your Master did it in the end. He obtained eternal life. And now he has come back.
To have his revenge on your betrayal.
"How wrong you were, Sidious." Ahsoka whispered at the same time as she watched the Clones be lifted through the Force by the Chancellor's hands and end with their necks broken. With a bellowing scream of anger, Chancellor Palpatine brought forth from the folds of his cloak a crimson lightsaber and charged with a jump and the Force at the closest exit.
In that moment, in that moment Ahsoka realized that there had been a point of escape in the plan for the Chancellor's safety, and it had been intended to lead the Chancellor away. It had been intended to lead him to run away exactly where someone else was waiting for him. As proof of Chancellor Palpatine's Sith teachings were shown to the world through the various live-in feed camera-droids, a blast of Force rippled through the Senate's floor. Ahsoka's eyes widened as a multi-colored swinging of lights flashed into play from the sole escape route left to the Sith, and the Chancellor was thrown back into the center of the Senate building, if at the very bottom of it.
"Out of the fire," Master Yoda said, "And straight into the Rancor Pits," he added with a grimace. "My apprentice, so do I dislike his mind, and yet oh so fascinating I find his ideas."
Ahsoka looked from Master Yoda to down below, where in full Galaxy-Wide vision, Master Shade stood with a dark cloak fluttering and Taozin nodules covering his entire frame, a Muun-like mask covering his face. His lightsabers fluttered and spun in the air as he moved both of his hands like a maestro in a concert, as the music increased to the point where individual words could not be heard. Her Master was speaking, but she couldn't-no, wait, she could.
She could hear. She could hear because the music didn't matter to her, not when compared to what she felt inside her through the Bond.
"Everything you have, I have taken away!" her Master spoke, his voice heavy and rough. "Everything you cherish, I have burned! I am your Master, and you are no longer fit for being my apprentice, Sidious!"
"You can't be him!" Palpatine snarled back, lightning emerging from his fingertips to kill the lightsabers striking at him, but iron spikes rose from the ground at a kick of her Master's foot on the ground, and the electricity was absorbed with ease. "I killed him! I killed you, Master! I DID!"
"I have knowledge over every Jedi and Sith art! I have power over every single living being! I am Darth Plagueis, and you think DEATH CAN STOP ME!? FEEL YOUR DEATH DRAW NEAR, SIDIOUS! FEEL IT, AND LET THAT FEAR DRIVE YOU TO HELL AND KEEP YOU THERE!" roaring like a frothing mad beast, pulsing thunder of burning orange light expelled from her master's fingers. The Chancellor's own lightning came up to meet and deny it, and yet Ahsoka felt it spike in the back of her head. As the Jedi Masters began to weave the Force, not at all casual with their placement around the chambers, she walked away from Master Yoda. She walked away and stood in front of the door where Count Dooku would try to commit the ultimate betrayal in order to become, himself, the true last Sith Master.
It was chaos.
It was pure and utter chaos, and she was sure that if she could feel her Master's Bond, she'd be in a state of fear and uncertainty herself. Yet, as her Master was fighting a battle through deceit against an opponent as versed in the Force as he was, or maybe even more, the door slid open just like she had suspected it would.
No, just like her Master had expected.
She stood, both lightsabers drawn.
Behind her, Mister Fluffles rose to full height, one lightsaber per paw.
And in front of her, Count Dooku lifted his own lightsaber and smiled his smug smile, his eyes fierce and firm.
"We meet again," the Count said. "I have my master to save, so move aside, padawan."
"You're lying," Ahsoka said. "You simply want revenge," she added, eyes narrow. "I won't allow you."
"Revenge," Count Dooku chuckled. "And you won't allow me?" he smiled warmly, and then he struck forward. Twin lightsabers sprung in action while two more slice at his midsection, but Count Dooku simply placed a hand behind his back and deflected them all, even as the effort and the fury from Ahsoka's body forced him out.
There could be no doubt in Ahsoka's mind. There could be no hesitation.
She'd trust her Master.
Even against all odds, all points, all options, she'd trust her Master.
Because he cared.
And if he cared, then he couldn't be bad.
No matter what was going on in the floor below.
As Count Dooku pierced through her guard, Ahsoka ducked and spun, reversing her grip of her lightsabers to parry a potential hit at her kidney. Mister Fluffles attacked from overhead, and yet Count Dooku sidestepped her with blinding speed, a finger lifted, yet the Force Push never came as Mister Fluffles' second set of large paws opened up to stop the attack. Surprised, yet unperturbed, Count Dooku sped up his strikes further with a flexibility and a set of thrusts that kept Ahsoka on her toes. The blade sizzled close to her neck, her eyes, her heart, and came dangerously close to burning her head off, instead taking away with a swipe a piece of her Padawan braid.
"Enough playing around," Count Dooku snapped as the ground trembled further.
THIS IS THE LANCE THAT SHATTERS THE HEAVENS. THIS IS LONGINUS SPEAR MADE MANIFEST. THIS IS DARKNESS GIVEN FORM. DIE NOW, AND DISAPPEAR!
Her Master was going all out, judging by the Force growing thicker around them. Count Dooku tried to use that split-second of distraction to behead her, but a tentacle of crimson blood and black thorns latched on to his arm, preventing him from completing the plunge that would have killed her.
Ahsoka stared in disbelief as Wonderland burst out of the walls around them, Mister Fluffles snarling in wariness as Count Dooku quickly dispatched the tentacle and turned to look at her with a surprised expression.
"You killed them," a voice whispered in the cold breeze. "You killed them all." They whispered harder still. "We're all dead." Mandalorian armor strapped to rotten carcasses twitched from the end of the corridor, as Dooku's eyes widened at the sight.
"What are you doing?" Count Dooku asked, looking at her. "What is this? What are you-"
"Knowledge is power," Ahsoka shot back as she felt his fear rush through her like an intoxicating drug. She smiled. She grinned like a tiger finding her prey bleeding. She could feel the Dark Side burst from the center of the Senate, and she knew it was wrong, she knew that she had to stop it, but it was Dooku.
He deserved it, didn't he?
"That's why I picked you, even in the worst of the things I saw, you were still doing the right thing, no matter the cost."
"Trust yourself to do the right thing."
Ahsoka took a step back, then another. As Count Dooku looked at the advancing enemies, and at the corpses of Jedi that moaned and screamed his name on their lips, he swatted away more and more tentacles shooting out from the walls and the ceiling, trying to capture him. One managed to bat his lightsaber away, and as more spun around him weaving a web of flesh and thorns around his body, he turned an outright pleading gaze at her. Ahsoka swallowed her nervousness, and as the wide-eyed eyes of fear stared at her, she looked at Mister Fluffles.
Mister Fluffles looked back.
She wouldn't let the darkness break her.
She wouldn't let herself turn Dark, because if she didn't, if she didn't fall, then her Master couldn't either.
Ahsoka yelled as she charged ahead, trying to strike at the advancing ghosts, who simply disappeared into thin mist the closer she drew to them. The tentacles receded as Ahsoka understood that while it was true that she couldn't sense her Master, the opposite wasn't true.
Her Master would never hurt her, because he cared.
Knight Darra and Knight Ferus arrived running down the corridor as if nothing had happened, lifting their lightsabers at Dooku who, white as a sheet, looked down at his trembling hands. "I failed," he whispered hoarsely. "I failed at everything."
"It is not our way," Ahsoka whispered gently, as Dooku looked up at her, not understanding the message in full. "The counts of Serenno do not complain or cry. They are born to take care of others. They don't expect others to take care of them." She shook her head softly. "But...you can't face everything in life alone now, can you? That's why you need...you need people to help you along the way. People you can trust."
She had the feeling her Master had audibly groaned from wherever he was, but when another stronger tremor shook the senate building, Knight Darra took the cue to speak.
"Right! We need to move!" the Knight said, "Count Dooku! You're-well, not under arrest, but still! We need to evacuate the place! It's coming down! It's all coming down!"
"What about the High Council?" Ahsoka asked, "What of the plan?"
"What plan?" Knight Darra asked.
"There was the plan," Ahsoka replied, wincing as she rummaged through her head. "Palpatine must be disconnected from the Force before he is killed, or he'll return. That's...that's why my master gambled on the Senate to take him in trap. The Jedi Master can't be allowed to fail-"
The ground trembled, "The Jedi Masters aren't leaving," Knight Ferus said. "They are willing to come down with the senate, if it stops the Sith."
Count Dooku stumbled back on his feet in that moment, and with the three knights warily looking at him, he began to walk away. Ahsoka didn't need to tell him anything more, because she could see it on his back.
He had lost it all, and he had emerged broken, yet strangely...smoothed out?
It was strange, maybe her Master would explain once it was all over -if her Master survived-no, not if.
As the grounds kept trembling, the trio of Jedi made their way out only seconds before it all came crashing down. The senate building didn't crash, as much as shatter apart as gravity stopped to matter, loose pieces of rock floating away as standing in the middle of a typhoon of Force, the Jedi Master like Mace Windu, Yoda, Ki-Adi-Mundi, and all the others lifted their hands for the final act of closure to the war. An ancient Force technique that Ahsoka gazed at with widening eyes.
The finality of the act unchallenged.
The finality of it, terribly weighing on her soul.
It wasn't a severance of the Force. It was-
"Look!" Knight Darra exclaimed, pointing a finger at a screen that showed the battle happening from a nearby building, a lone camera droid still alight in time to watch the two enemies face each other off. Ahsoka looked up at the giant screen, and she watched as her Master's fingers thrummed with orange lightning, meeting against the blue one of the Chancellor.
"You are not my Master!" Palpatine's voice came out cracked and maddened.
The walls of light slowly began to lift from the floating Jedi who stood hands raised around them, a Nexus of the Force springing to life from the mere act of such a terrifying battle. A battle to decide on the Nexus' type came subtly as a test of will, a test of will that would decide the future of the galaxy.
Her Master's mask had disappeared, and as the wall of light grew until it enclosed both combatants, so too had his dark robes.
The man standing in the center was her Master, but of 'Darth Plagueis' there was no trace.
The walls of light finally closed like a tomb, entrapping both Sith Master and Jedi Master inside as the Force came less, abruptly cut. Ahsoka winced. There was no backslash, she had already suffered from it once, and this was no different, was it?
The first to recover from the lack of the Force was her Master, and as Darth Sidious shrieked and grabbed his lightsaber to charge at him...her Master opened fire.
Her Master opened fire with a shotgun.
The first blow blew a chunk of Darth Sidious' shoulder off, the second blow struck his leg, the third hit him in the stomach. The lightsaber deactivated and yet her Master didn't stop firing at Darth Sidious, as blow after blow took away chunks of flesh from the man's body, as blood sprayed on the ground, and yet more, and more, and more shots struck the man.
Finally, her Master stopped right over Darth Sidious, and putting the Shotgun's head to the back of the -clearly dead- man, he pulled the trigger one last time.
Stepping back, he threw the shotgun away.
He then took a few more steps and collapsed on a neat piece of rubble, and bringing both hands to his face, he began to laugh.
His laughter remained on the television screens of all of Coruscant for the weeks to come.
AN: Epilogue incoming. And yes. Yes. Yes. You got it. I killed Darth Sidious with a shotgun. Genre Saviness FOR. THE. WIN.
When they pulled into the Jedi Temple with the shuttle Anakin had 'acquired', Ahsoka had expected to find a Jedi to talk to within the next five minutes. Instead, it turned out there wasn't a single Jedi of the High Council in the temple to begin with. Now that would have been strange on any day, but what made it stranger was that there had been no warning at all, not even for Anakin -who in fact, had been in the Temple until that very morning.
"They've gone to the Senate to ensure peace talks proceed smoothly," Knight Olin said. "They'll begin shortly in the afternoon."
"We've got to hurry then," Ahsoka said, only for Anakin to look at Ferus with hesitation. "Tell him or tell him not!" Ahsoka snapped at Anakin's hesitation, before rushing back towards the hangar. Anakin would have rebuked the padawan, but she was already gone out of sight.
Time was of the essence, and as Ahsoka ignited the engines of the speeder once more, she barely could wait for Knight Skywalker. In the end, Knight Ferus roped in Knight Darra, and instead of two Jedi, four Jedi departed at a breakneck pace through Coruscant's now heavily intensified traffic due to the peace talks.
"Let me drive!" Anakin snapped. "You're going too slow!"
"Don't let him drive!" Ferus yelled back as he gripped on to the safety belt of the Speeder, while Ahsoka simply gave even more gas.
"Please don't crash," Darra prayed, "Please don't crash," she kept repeating as Ahsoka rolled her eyes and executed a perfect spinning maneuver to avoid crashing in a television droid floating too close for her tastes.
When they arrived -in less than ten minutes- near the Senate's building, Ferus Olin dropped his knees on the pavement of the place and began to breathe in and out deeply.
"Well," Anakin said, "You didn't learn driving from Night," he acquiesced. "I approve."
"I want Master Shade to drive me back home," Darra said in a tiny whisper, "I refuse to let you drive ever again. I'm pulling rank."
"Let's...let's just get going," Ahsoka said with a tiny, nervous smile. They stepped inside the senate and then were brought all the way up, past an ever growing crowd of people, to where the Senator's Office was.
You are Chancellor Palpatine. Ahsoka blinked. Had that voice been her Master's? It had come from...from somewhere around her, maybe in the crowd? And you are about to have the worst day in your entire life.
Ahsoka blinked.
You are nervous because of the attack on the Jedi Temple. You are nervous because things aren't going according to your plan. You are nervous, and you are about to make the worst mistake of your entire life.
Ahsoka winced.
She looked at the Jedi of the High Council reunited around the chancellor, delivering the final points of their plans for defending and intervening in case Count Dooku tried something shady.
The Jedi will take position in a circle around the main stage. You will be protected from Dooku. You are angry at some of the senators too. The head of the banking clan has disappeared, dropped off the radar. The Trading Guild and the richest of the arm dealers have gone off the map too. You can't help but feel unease, since they were senators firmly in your camp.
Master Yoda nodded at their arrival. "Master Yoda," Ahsoka said, "We're sorry to importunate you now, but-"
"There were assassins in the underground of Coruscant," Knight Skywalker said. "We thought it best to come and warn you of them," he added.
"Were they Separatists?" the Chancellor asked, his voice grave. "And have they been dealt with?"
"Yes," Ahsoka said suddenly, catching Anakin's words before they could come out of his mouth. "They have been dealt with, Chancellor."
Anakin looked at her, and then nodded. "They won't be a threat any longer," he added, and yet the Chancellor was even less at ease than before.
You are a Sith Master, and your pupil is no longer answering your calls. You feel betrayed, and you call for a certain Witch to deliver a curse, and a warning, and keep the war going. You have hair from the young Skywalker, and so you decide to use it. It is unfortunate, and lacks grace and finesse, but you're being backed against the wall and are starting to grow even more nervous.
Your plan fails. Now you are no longer nervous.
You are afraid.
Ahsoka watched the Chancellor leave his office to begin addressing the senate, and as he did, she realized that Knight Skywalker was looking at her with a look of utter puzzlement. Master Yoda simply nodded at the unspoken words that she wanted to have with him, and as he began to wobble his way to his assigned position, Ahsoka followed behind him. Anakin instead went with Master Obi-Wan, while Knight Ferus and Darra were kindly sent with Master Mace.
"Questions you must hold," Master Yoda said crisply as they stopped in one of the empty senator platforms -assigned specifically to the Jedi overseeing the peace talk exchanges. Half the senate was filled with bright white lights, to signal the Republic side, while on the other side flickering crimson lights showed the Separatists' ambassadors which had followed Count Dooku. In the middle, cameras went on as the Chancellor addressed his public.
You are a Sith Master. You have planned for every step of the conflict. You believed the loyalty of your apprentice absolute, yet now, here he is, looking at you with a smug smirk as if he knew something you don't know. What has he planned? What can he do to stop you? There is no one who knows your true identity except for him, but he has no proof. He cannot use it. He has committed so many evil acts to prove his loyalty, the Jedi will never forgive him. The Rule of Two is absolute. Only a Sith would be able to move him away from you, but for what purpose? No matter. You will make the Chosen One your apprentice and everything will be fine. Cameras are everywhere. If Count Dooku attacks, you will swiftly escape and point the blame on the Separatists. You have your personal guards, and he has but droids.
If only the assassins hadn't failed, you could call off the peace talk by incensing the Republic Side.
It dawned on Ahsoka.
It dawned like a ray of light and her eyes began to widen slowly as time seemed to slow.
Time seemed to slow as she realized just how true Master Shen-Jon's words had been. She realized just how much truth there was in the words of Mad Alice, and how much misdirection had been neatly laid down when she finally connected all the dots delivered in front of her.
"When you remove the impossible," Master Yoda said, quoting someone without a doubt because he was speaking normally, "all that remains, no matter how improbable," he continued, and gave her a sad look, "is the truth."
The music. There is music playing. You have done your part, and talked of peace. You are looking at Count Dooku, sure his proposal for peace will be refused no matter the terms.
"We offer unconditional surrender!" Count Dooku exclaimed loudly, shocking the entirety of the Republic Senate into silence. Both hands raised, Count Dooku spoke crisply over the now deafening silence of the room. "The Republic was corrupt when this war began, make no mistake, and we shall not refuse that truth! But now, now it's no longer the case!" here he laughed, "The reason for this war is now over with!"
The Separatist side wasn't protesting the terms. No, it was more like they were applauding them. Ahsoka's eyes snapped to where they stood, and it was then that she realized that the droids weren't safeguarding the senators.
They were pointing their guns at their backs, holding them in check and making sure they played their part well.
You are Chancellor Palpatine. You are a Sith Master. Your plan to purge the Jedi Order is just about to go down the drain. Thousand of years, suddenly gone in a cesspit. And someone is playing a horrible piece of music in the air. Then words start to come.
And as they arrive, you recognize them. As they break through Count Dooku's speech, making him silent. As they do come, you think it can't be but a lie. It has to be a lie.
It has to be a horrible, horrible, lie.
Nobody should know those words. Nobody should, and yet someone does.
"Tell me what you regard as your greatest strength, so I will know how best to undermine you," the voice was that of a male Muun, and as it spoke, Chancellor Palpatine looked visibly uneasy. More than visibly, he looked at Count Dooku as the Count simply kept smiling smugly, as if he knew what was going on. "Tell me of your greatest fear, so I will know which I must force you to face," the voice continued, and Count Dooku's grin blossomed in a full, all-teeth visible, smile. "Tell me what you cherish most, so I will know what to take from you."
A motion suddenly passed throughout the screens of the Republic, and it beeped to live in front of the Chancellor's face. It was a simple motion.
A very, simple, motion.
Execute Order Sixty-Five.
"And tell me what you crave, so that I might deny you." The voice finished speaking as the Chancellor's guards raised their guns at the Chancellor's head and barked a crisp order.
"Chancellor! By the order of the Republic's Senate, you are to renounce your post!"
"What is this?" Palpatine whispered, eyes wide as he looked around. "What is happening? Why is this-Senator Organa, what is the meaning of this!?"
And Senator Organa lifted up a holo-cron disk, a holo-cron disk that showed Palpatine use the Force Shock lighting to torture to death a Male Muun. It showed Palpatine gloat. It showed him speak, and speak he did through it.
"You lost the game on the very first day you chose to train me to rule by your side—or better still under your thumb. Teacher, yes, and for that I will be eternally grateful. But Master—never." The crisp voice that came through the air resulted in a chorus of shocked exclamations and reactions of surprise from the Republic side, although by that moment, many a Separatist Senator was watching the proceedings with utter dread in their eyes as they finally realized, as it finally dawned on them, just how many of them had been played for fools.
"H-How," Palpatine gasped, clutching the counter of his platform with a hand. "How." He snarled louder. His gaze on Dooku.
"Surrender the post sir!" the clone troopers on the platform commanded once more, "Or we will have to-g-gah!"
You are Darth Sidious, and everything you have planned for has failed. You thought it was all perfect. You thought there would be no enemies left. You thought everyone was under your thumb, and your latest enemy in the Jedi Temple defeated by his own Dark Side, and severed from the Force. You thought yourself safe. You thought yourself about to grasp victory, in just a few more years.
How wrong you were. How wrong you were. Your Master did it in the end. He obtained eternal life. And now he has come back.
To have his revenge on your betrayal.
"How wrong you were, Sidious." Ahsoka whispered at the same time as she watched the Clones be lifted through the Force by the Chancellor's hands and end with their necks broken. With a bellowing scream of anger, Chancellor Palpatine brought forth from the folds of his cloak a crimson lightsaber and charged with a jump and the Force at the closest exit.
In that moment, in that moment Ahsoka realized that there had been a point of escape in the plan for the Chancellor's safety, and it had been intended to lead the Chancellor away. It had been intended to lead him to run away exactly where someone else was waiting for him. As proof of Chancellor Palpatine's Sith teachings were shown to the world through the various live-in feed camera-droids, a blast of Force rippled through the Senate's floor. Ahsoka's eyes widened as a multi-colored swinging of lights flashed into play from the sole escape route left to the Sith, and the Chancellor was thrown back into the center of the Senate building, if at the very bottom of it.
"Out of the fire," Master Yoda said, "And straight into the Rancor Pits," he added with a grimace. "My apprentice, so do I dislike his mind, and yet oh so fascinating I find his ideas."
Ahsoka looked from Master Yoda to down below, where in full Galaxy-Wide vision, Master Shade stood with a dark cloak fluttering and Taozin nodules covering his entire frame, a Muun-like mask covering his face. His lightsabers fluttered and spun in the air as he moved both of his hands like a maestro in a concert, as the music increased to the point where individual words could not be heard. Her Master was speaking, but she couldn't-no, wait, she could.
She could hear. She could hear because the music didn't matter to her, not when compared to what she felt inside her through the Bond.
"Everything you have, I have taken away!" her Master spoke, his voice heavy and rough. "Everything you cherish, I have burned! I am your Master, and you are no longer fit for being my apprentice, Sidious!"
"You can't be him!" Palpatine snarled back, lightning emerging from his fingertips to kill the lightsabers striking at him, but iron spikes rose from the ground at a kick of her Master's foot on the ground, and the electricity was absorbed with ease. "I killed him! I killed you, Master! I DID!"
"I have knowledge over every Jedi and Sith art! I have power over every single living being! I am Darth Plagueis, and you think DEATH CAN STOP ME!? FEEL YOUR DEATH DRAW NEAR, SIDIOUS! FEEL IT, AND LET THAT FEAR DRIVE YOU TO HELL AND KEEP YOU THERE!" roaring like a frothing mad beast, pulsing thunder of burning orange light expelled from her master's fingers. The Chancellor's own lightning came up to meet and deny it, and yet Ahsoka felt it spike in the back of her head. As the Jedi Masters began to weave the Force, not at all casual with their placement around the chambers, she walked away from Master Yoda. She walked away and stood in front of the door where Count Dooku would try to commit the ultimate betrayal in order to become, himself, the true last Sith Master.
It was chaos.
It was pure and utter chaos, and she was sure that if she could feel her Master's Bond, she'd be in a state of fear and uncertainty herself. Yet, as her Master was fighting a battle through deceit against an opponent as versed in the Force as he was, or maybe even more, the door slid open just like she had suspected it would.
No, just like her Master had expected.
She stood, both lightsabers drawn.
Behind her, Mister Fluffles rose to full height, one lightsaber per paw.
And in front of her, Count Dooku lifted his own lightsaber and smiled his smug smile, his eyes fierce and firm.
"We meet again," the Count said. "I have my master to save, so move aside, padawan."
"You're lying," Ahsoka said. "You simply want revenge," she added, eyes narrow. "I won't allow you."
"Revenge," Count Dooku chuckled. "And you won't allow me?" he smiled warmly, and then he struck forward. Twin lightsabers sprung in action while two more slice at his midsection, but Count Dooku simply placed a hand behind his back and deflected them all, even as the effort and the fury from Ahsoka's body forced him out.
There could be no doubt in Ahsoka's mind. There could be no hesitation.
She'd trust her Master.
Even against all odds, all points, all options, she'd trust her Master.
Because he cared.
And if he cared, then he couldn't be bad.
No matter what was going on in the floor below.
As Count Dooku pierced through her guard, Ahsoka ducked and spun, reversing her grip of her lightsabers to parry a potential hit at her kidney. Mister Fluffles attacked from overhead, and yet Count Dooku sidestepped her with blinding speed, a finger lifted, yet the Force Push never came as Mister Fluffles' second set of large paws opened up to stop the attack. Surprised, yet unperturbed, Count Dooku sped up his strikes further with a flexibility and a set of thrusts that kept Ahsoka on her toes. The blade sizzled close to her neck, her eyes, her heart, and came dangerously close to burning her head off, instead taking away with a swipe a piece of her Padawan braid.
"Enough playing around," Count Dooku snapped as the ground trembled further.
THIS IS THE LANCE THAT SHATTERS THE HEAVENS. THIS IS LONGINUS SPEAR MADE MANIFEST. THIS IS DARKNESS GIVEN FORM. DIE NOW, AND DISAPPEAR!
Her Master was going all out, judging by the Force growing thicker around them. Count Dooku tried to use that split-second of distraction to behead her, but a tentacle of crimson blood and black thorns latched on to his arm, preventing him from completing the plunge that would have killed her.
Ahsoka stared in disbelief as Wonderland burst out of the walls around them, Mister Fluffles snarling in wariness as Count Dooku quickly dispatched the tentacle and turned to look at her with a surprised expression.
"You killed them," a voice whispered in the cold breeze. "You killed them all." They whispered harder still. "We're all dead." Mandalorian armor strapped to rotten carcasses twitched from the end of the corridor, as Dooku's eyes widened at the sight.
"What are you doing?" Count Dooku asked, looking at her. "What is this? What are you-"
"Knowledge is power," Ahsoka shot back as she felt his fear rush through her like an intoxicating drug. She smiled. She grinned like a tiger finding her prey bleeding. She could feel the Dark Side burst from the center of the Senate, and she knew it was wrong, she knew that she had to stop it, but it was Dooku.
He deserved it, didn't he?
"That's why I picked you, even in the worst of the things I saw, you were still doing the right thing, no matter the cost."
"Trust yourself to do the right thing."
Ahsoka took a step back, then another. As Count Dooku looked at the advancing enemies, and at the corpses of Jedi that moaned and screamed his name on their lips, he swatted away more and more tentacles shooting out from the walls and the ceiling, trying to capture him. One managed to bat his lightsaber away, and as more spun around him weaving a web of flesh and thorns around his body, he turned an outright pleading gaze at her. Ahsoka swallowed her nervousness, and as the wide-eyed eyes of fear stared at her, she looked at Mister Fluffles.
Mister Fluffles looked back.
She wouldn't let the darkness break her.
She wouldn't let herself turn Dark, because if she didn't, if she didn't fall, then her Master couldn't either.
Ahsoka yelled as she charged ahead, trying to strike at the advancing ghosts, who simply disappeared into thin mist the closer she drew to them. The tentacles receded as Ahsoka understood that while it was true that she couldn't sense her Master, the opposite wasn't true.
Her Master would never hurt her, because he cared.
Knight Darra and Knight Ferus arrived running down the corridor as if nothing had happened, lifting their lightsabers at Dooku who, white as a sheet, looked down at his trembling hands. "I failed," he whispered hoarsely. "I failed at everything."
"It is not our way," Ahsoka whispered gently, as Dooku looked up at her, not understanding the message in full. "The counts of Serenno do not complain or cry. They are born to take care of others. They don't expect others to take care of them." She shook her head softly. "But...you can't face everything in life alone now, can you? That's why you need...you need people to help you along the way. People you can trust."
She had the feeling her Master had audibly groaned from wherever he was, but when another stronger tremor shook the senate building, Knight Darra took the cue to speak.
"Right! We need to move!" the Knight said, "Count Dooku! You're-well, not under arrest, but still! We need to evacuate the place! It's coming down! It's all coming down!"
"What about the High Council?" Ahsoka asked, "What of the plan?"
"What plan?" Knight Darra asked.
"There was the plan," Ahsoka replied, wincing as she rummaged through her head. "Palpatine must be disconnected from the Force before he is killed, or he'll return. That's...that's why my master gambled on the Senate to take him in trap. The Jedi Master can't be allowed to fail-"
The ground trembled, "The Jedi Masters aren't leaving," Knight Ferus said. "They are willing to come down with the senate, if it stops the Sith."
Count Dooku stumbled back on his feet in that moment, and with the three knights warily looking at him, he began to walk away. Ahsoka didn't need to tell him anything more, because she could see it on his back.
He had lost it all, and he had emerged broken, yet strangely...smoothed out?
It was strange, maybe her Master would explain once it was all over -if her Master survived-no, not if.
As the grounds kept trembling, the trio of Jedi made their way out only seconds before it all came crashing down. The senate building didn't crash, as much as shatter apart as gravity stopped to matter, loose pieces of rock floating away as standing in the middle of a typhoon of Force, the Jedi Master like Mace Windu, Yoda, Ki-Adi-Mundi, and all the others lifted their hands for the final act of closure to the war. An ancient Force technique that Ahsoka gazed at with widening eyes.
The finality of the act unchallenged.
The finality of it, terribly weighing on her soul.
It wasn't a severance of the Force. It was-
"Look!" Knight Darra exclaimed, pointing a finger at a screen that showed the battle happening from a nearby building, a lone camera droid still alight in time to watch the two enemies face each other off. Ahsoka looked up at the giant screen, and she watched as her Master's fingers thrummed with orange lightning, meeting against the blue one of the Chancellor.
"You are not my Master!" Palpatine's voice came out cracked and maddened.
The walls of light slowly began to lift from the floating Jedi who stood hands raised around them, a Nexus of the Force springing to life from the mere act of such a terrifying battle. A battle to decide on the Nexus' type came subtly as a test of will, a test of will that would decide the future of the galaxy.
Her Master's mask had disappeared, and as the wall of light grew until it enclosed both combatants, so too had his dark robes.
The man standing in the center was her Master, but of 'Darth Plagueis' there was no trace.
The walls of light finally closed like a tomb, entrapping both Sith Master and Jedi Master inside as the Force came less, abruptly cut. Ahsoka winced. There was no backslash, she had already suffered from it once, and this was no different, was it?
The first to recover from the lack of the Force was her Master, and as Darth Sidious shrieked and grabbed his lightsaber to charge at him...her Master opened fire.
Her Master opened fire with a shotgun.
The first blow blew a chunk of Darth Sidious' shoulder off, the second blow struck his leg, the third hit him in the stomach. The lightsaber deactivated and yet her Master didn't stop firing at Darth Sidious, as blow after blow took away chunks of flesh from the man's body, as blood sprayed on the ground, and yet more, and more, and more shots struck the man.
Finally, her Master stopped right over Darth Sidious, and putting the Shotgun's head to the back of the -clearly dead- man, he pulled the trigger one last time.
Stepping back, he threw the shotgun away.
He then took a few more steps and collapsed on a neat piece of rubble, and bringing both hands to his face, he began to laugh.
His laughter remained on the television screens of all of Coruscant for the weeks to come.
AN: Epilogue incoming. And yes. Yes. Yes. You got it. I killed Darth Sidious with a shotgun. Genre Saviness FOR. THE. WIN.
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Win indeed! You not only used genre saviness you used Matthew Stover! Poor bastard never stood a chance!
Oh I am slain!
Wynaut?
- Location
- Tatooine
Yesssssss. That was satisfying.
Hmm, was the Plagueis bit simply for throwing Palpatine off guard and getting him to immediately admit his Sith-iness? Or was there more to it?
Dooku's actions and interactions seemed a bit odd, but I guess we'll learn more in the epilogue.
piece
Hmm, was the Plagueis bit simply for throwing Palpatine off guard and getting him to immediately admit his Sith-iness? Or was there more to it?
Dooku's actions and interactions seemed a bit odd, but I guess we'll learn more in the epilogue.
Oh you magnificent Bastard that was quite the twist
Bladestar123
Happy
- Location
- Man, wherever
.......ahhhhhhhh...
...There it is......
Well done shade. Well fucking done. And...it really was happy until the end. It really was. That was great.
...There it is......
Well done shade. Well fucking done. And...it really was happy until the end. It really was. That was great.
HarakoniWarhawk
Striking from the Skies
- Location
- Holy Terra
- Pronouns
- She/Her
That was... That was something truly special.
You are ignoring content by this member.
Show ignored content
Yes.
That's... really all I have to say. Bra-fucking-vo, sir.
That's... really all I have to say. Bra-fucking-vo, sir.
Ridiculously Average Guy
I'm you, but stronger
- Location
-
My reaction this entire update:
Y-you motherfucker. Shade, you magnificent son of a bitch! I read your fic!
Y-you motherfucker. Shade, you magnificent son of a bitch! I read your fic!
RazorBlaxe
Just another transient being
- Location
- Earth
That. Was. Just. Fucking brilliant.
Well done Shade, well done.
Well done Shade, well done.
Dragonskyt
Ashen one, hearest thou my voice, still?
- Location
- Kiln of the First Flame
I guess Harry Dresden was right.
Magic (The Force/Lightsaber) is a great tool to use.
But a gun works just as well, if not better.
Magic (The Force/Lightsaber) is a great tool to use.
But a gun works just as well, if not better.
Epilogue
- Location
- https://discord.gg/z9tBvbh
Epilogue
The war ended on that day, but it took weeks to hash out further details on how to answer to the logistic troubles of the clones and of the droids. In order to ensure the mistakes of the past weren't repeated, new laws were passed, fiscal pressure was eased, and at the end of the day, the army of the Republic was formed half and half of people coming from both sides of the previous conflict. Having been all toyed by the Sith, there was no love lost for them. Having been saved by the Jedi, there were no shortage of praise.
With the Senate building destroyed and turned into a Force Nexus of pulsing and twirling strength, a new location had to be decided for the Senate, while the old grounds would be turned into a temple of meditation for the Jedi.
"Peace talks have been finalized, Master," Ahsoka said, crossing her arms in front of her chest. "The reports are coming in, but-I have to ask if this is really required," as she spoke, she gestured at the Datapad containing information on this 'Death Star'.
"Unfortunately, there is a greater enemy incoming," her Master acquiesced with a nod, looking out of the window of his office in the Jedi Temple.
"How do you keep track of all these things," Ahsoka remarked, "I'll never know."
It had been months since the defeat of the Sith Master Darth Sidious, and Count Dooku's surrendering of the Separatist faction and subsequent disappearance, yet her Master had been surprisingly tight-lipped on a lot of things. His office was a mess however, there was little to it. He might have been a great Jedi Master, knowledgeable in the Force and everything else, but he was utterly incapable of putting everything back in its proper place once used.
The Cheshire Cat neatly snoozed on his desk, moving its tail around with a lazy motion. She wanted to pull it, but Mister Fluffles beat her to it and, jumping like the tabby orange cat he was, he bit down on it, making the purple-cat yelp and jump away with a loud hiss. As the two cats pursued one another, her Master hummed and wrote down another scribbled note.
"There is a Force technique to remember things," her Master pointed out. "First thing I learned. It's how I keep track of everything, and how I could rewrite from memory the books of my youth."
Ahsoka nodded, and then stopped right next to her Master. He looked down at her and then averted his gaze. Ahsoka kept staying there, and grinned mischievously. Her Master sighed, and brought a hand down, patting Ahsoka's head as the Padawan brought up the coffee cup for him to drink.
"It's surprising how much laxer you can make a Jedi Order when you're in the High Council," her Master pointed out after taking a sip of coffee. Ahsoka hummed with a grin stuck on her face, plastered there from the feeling of happiness her Master was going through by drinking the coffee. She shook her head to clear her mind, and walked towards the window.
"What happens next, Master?" she asked, looking at him.
"Well, as a wise man once said," her Master replied. "People can live without knowing what's about to happen five minutes from now."
"Maybe," Ahsoka acquiesced. "But if such a man was actually wise, he'd have asked for help."
"I knew you'd do the right thing," her Master pointed out, shrugging it off.
He looked back at her, and she couldn't help but wonder what would have happened if she hadn't. And then she realized that if she hadn't, her Master would have been struck down once the Force had gone away, and then Palpatine would have died next all the same...and there simply wouldn't have been her Master there in the room with her.
Her Master had been willing to bet his life on her doing the right thing.
He didn't need to ask for help, because he trusted her to do the right thing. He still hadn't answered her most important questions -most important of them all 'Just how much had he foreseen?', which remained willfully ignored, or sidestepped,
Ahsoka left her Master in his office, and stepped out to meet with Knight Skywalker and the other Knights. She didn't need to know everything about her Master in the end, and even if the war had ended, she knew he was still keeping secrets. Still, she'd trust him. She was going to prove to him she had conquered curiosity, and once she did, he'd probably tell her it was her final test and promote her to the rank of Knight.
Yes, that was probably what would happen.
Her Master disappeared the next day.
He disappeared, and he never returned.
A single note remained pinned to his great map of the galaxy, showcasing events, dates and things to do and avoid.
Unfortunately for him, a certain Padawan knew her Master's mind by then to the point where, when he was already inserting the coordinates for the Hyperjump away from Deep Core worlds and all the way towards the far depths of space, she calmly took the cockpit by his side.
"Using Taozin nodules to appear invisible to my senses," her Master remarked with a dry chuckle. "That's a no-no, Ahsoka."
"Disappearing in the night gets old after the first time, Master," Ahsoka acquiesced.
"So," Anakin Skywalker said, propping himself down from a hidden compartment over their head, "Where are we going?"
"Uh!" Knight Darra said as she stepped out of the closest closet, Taozin amulet around her neck just like Skywalker. "So I wasn't the only one who smelled fish out of the sea!"
"I cannot believe all of you," Ferus Olin said, his voice cross as he rolled out from beneath a panel. "I was going to stop him after finding out where he was going."
"Right," Anakin said. "Kuudere."
"I AM NOT A KUUDERE, YOU TSUNDERE!"
"I AM NOT A TSUNDERE! TAKE THAT-"
"All right, all right," Knight Darra said, "Come on boys, be nice or Master Shade won't give pats to neither of your hotheads."
"Darra," her Master said with a dreadful sigh, gesturing her closer. He then flicked her forehead.
"Ouch," the Knight winced. "Come on, Night," the girl pouted, "I know I can't make the doe-eyes anymore, but maybe your padawan can-"
"Pretty please," Ahsoka caught on, her eyes widening as she looked at her Master who simply stared back with a deadpan glare.
"Fine," her Master acquiesced. He turned to look at all of them, and raised his right hand to obtain silence. "Go sit down and strap your seat's belts on."
"Maybe I should drive-" Anakin began, only for everyone else -Ahsoka excluded- to scream a denial at the top of their lungs.
"I drove podracers when I was less than ten years old!" Anakin blurted out.
"I am the only one allowed to drive this spaceship," her Master retorted. "I found it on Dromund Kaas, it's mine, and if anyone of you dares to touch a single command from-"
"I'm driving," Ahsoka said, and with the coordinates inserted, all that it remained was to simply push a button.
Thus the Ebon Hawk sailed out in the galaxy.
To infinity and...beyond!
Author's Notes:
-Concerning Dooku-
He was one of the last disciples of Yoda, so Palpatine 'pitted' him against Shade repeatedly. Some form of 'Let's have fun sending the old apprentice versus the new one, hoping to corrupt the new one and make the old crone feel sick'.
On Felucia, Palpatine knew who would lead the assault, and having already known of Shade's prowess in the Force, deemed him a threat that had to be eliminated. Yet, his turning to the Dark Side gave him the idea to try to 'bring him to his side'. Due to his age, he could have been the Chosen One after all, rather than Skywalker.
On Florrum, Palpatine again pitted Dooku versus Shade, but this time to capture him -and turn him later.
Realizing how hard it would be due to the bond with his apprentice, Palpatine finally decided to deal with him by allowing the usage of the Cortosis enhanced droids -only a few survived past Shade's destruction of their forge, and in order to recover the Holocrons needed that Cad Bane had failed to achieve, more 'firepower' was required.
Count Dooku decided to bring General Grievous after Asaji's death. The reason was duplicitous. Around this time, a certain 'Plagueis' had contacted him, and told him of Sidious' real plans about Skywalker. There was no love lost between Master and Apprentice of the SIth, and since 'Plagueis' delivered information that the Count could use -stuff like who really was responsible for a couple of tragedies around the galaxy, who was manipulating what, and just what his 'expiration date' would be-, they both came off happy of the deal planned. Grievous would die and weaken the separatist, at the same time leaving Dooku the sole 'General in Command' of the army of droids, and thus the only one capable of discussing a ceasefire.
Since Plagueis needed -in Dooku's opinion- peace to advance his agenda, he was preferable to Palpatine who needed war.
Palpatine couldn't deal with Dooku's pigheaded rashness yet, because due to the 'peace talks' having started, he had to be always in his Chancellor Persona, which meant that when Padme and Ahsoka left, a certain Master Shade spoke with Senator Organa and showed him some very compromising footage of the chancellor. However, since removing the chancellor there and then would make the point of peace moot, Organa kept the footage hidden until the time came to reveal it and execute order 65 -remove the chancellor.
Then, in order to act while in secret, Master Shade 'severed' himself from the force, and in fact merely acquired a hefty dose of Taozin nodules to appear invisible, and with that invisibility -and away from Palpatine's senses- proceeded to make 'accidents' happen to the scum-senators.
This got Palpatine unnerved.
The peace proposal is passed on the Separatist world, and Dooku's thinking that Plagueis has disappeared off the radar. Until he appears on his shuttle and makes sure Dooku has the sole command of the droids, rather than the Separatist ambassadors.
Dooku plays the 'I'm not Dumb' card, and Shade knows he's playing that card with the Trap-Card Effect 'But When you Weaken we'll discuss plans'.
Since all Sith play that card for free.
Like, all Sith.
So then he goes back to Coruscant and hides in wait as the Jedi Council is alerted to get ready to rumble -they were already warned during the last report given by Shade, so they've had time to make peace and be prepared for the final countdown to peace.
It's tricky, and at any moment, anything can fail.
Count Dooku believes he's working for a honest to god Darth Plagueis capable of a lot of things and immortal.
Palpatine starts to feel nervousness. He hired Mother Talzin to try to stir shit up, but the Nightsisters that were supposed to attack aren't appearing. Maybe killed off in a dark alley -the Jedi killed them in the slums? Master Shade cut their heads off after following the bread crumps to keep an eye on his apprentice out of worry?-
Still, Palpatine's alone.
He tries to start a speech and make things go long, but the music plays.
A music he's never heard before.
He stumbles.
He expects Dooku to rebuke him for his words, to put up proposals that the Republic won't concede.
The unconditional surrender is absolutely the last thing he expects.
He can't do it.
He can't keep the war going with that.
He can start a new one, spark another, but he's forced to concede...and WHY. IS. THE. MUSIC. PLAYING?
And then come the words.
The words that he has heard day after day.
The words pronounced by a Master that tortured him while training him, a Master he never loved, nor liked. A teacher, yes, but never a Master.
And suddenly fear arrives.
Because guess what?
Canon Palpatine had an utter terror of Plagueis actually being still alive. He feared his old master, the master he had killed, and he feared the Chosen One, nothing less than Plagueis' experiment with the Force.
And when Dooku felt his fear, he knew that he had chosen a better master.
Meanwhile, order Sixty-Five happened.
And Palpatine watched the video that only someone like his Master could have known when to take. And he realized, or so he thought, that his Master had died on purpose to show him the futility of such an action. That he had recorded it so that at the moment of his triumph, he could bring him crashing down. The utter despair. A finger away from victory, and then the plummeting in the Abyss of Despair.
Fear gripped at his heart, and he reacted on the Force. He could have denied it. He could have said anything from CGI to Photoshop Coruscant Edition, but Count Dooku was smiling at him, and fear, rage, anger, they all bubbled in the man until he exploded.
Thus, when he revealed himself, he wanted to escape. He wanted to run.
But the Jedi blocked all exits save for one.
One where there was no living being in wait.
And so, Palpatine stepped into the final trap that anyone who wasn't being gripped by fear would have maybe -with his experience- avoided.
Afraid, traumatized, terrorized, he didn't attack the other Jedi working on the Shield of Light technique, but concentrated on 'His Master' who faced him off.
He could have killed a Jedi Master and escaped, but he did not.
He was too afraid to think.
Meanwhile, Dooku realized that he was free to do as he pleased now. There wasn't a Separatist cause, and there wasn't a war any longer. After having betrayed everything and everyone, the only thing that remained to him was the mere thought of having revenge, or of dying by his master's hand.
Instead he found the Togruta.
Seriously, Count Dooku was starting to hate Togruta.
A Togruta and her floating lightsabers.
Just like Plagueis fighting Palpatine.
And Count Dooku realizes he was played.
He chuckles and he laughs, and then decides he'll kill Master Yoda or die.
When the Dark Side of the Force brings Wonderland into play, it's the Wonderland inside of Shade's head, which is going on a rampage of passion and excitement as the final battle is there, and all can still happen.
Master Obi-Wan is with Anakin, so he's pacified, Knight Darra and Ferus are together, so they'll survive. And he trusts the Disney Princess magic on Ahsoka to guide her through.
But he is getting angrier and fiercer, because, in the end, Sidious needs to die.
As he roars and screams and uses the Darkshear -he went to the Valley of Souls, not just out of sightseeing reasons- he falls to the Dark side, and just as suspected, Ahsoka's the good Disney character, and 'springs him back up' like an anchor of light.
Because when Ahsoka steps to fight Wonderland, Shade's head goes 'THE FUCK YOU DOING STOP' and Wonderland stops.
Count Dooku is now defeated.
He committed crimes, he did much wrong, he believed in a wrong cause, he thought the Sith were the answer, but they weren't. And then Ahsoka tells him what a Count of Serenno his. What he is supposed to be.
And then he tells him he's wrong.
He's been so stupidly fixed on individualism -'A lone man should make the difference'- that he never understood that he didn't need to be alone to do it. He's been so centered on acquiring personal, private power to 'be the Good God that makes things Good' that he never thought about being the 'Good People's Persons that makes people good'.
And he leaves.
He leaves, and heads into exile, and he never comes back.
He's not worthy of being a Count, or of being a Jedi, or even a Sith.
He'll be Dooku for a while. Maybe he'll find a hut on Tattooine and become known as 'Old Man Dooku' or something like that, and he'll live in peace what remains of his life.
Or maybe he'll try to make amends, and help save lives.
Certainly, when the Vong will arrive, he'll help and maybe he'll die in battle, a smile on his lips for having helped, or be pardoned and find himself sharing a table with Master Yoda, old and cranky but still alive because 'it cannot die what can forever be green' as the Vong are defeated.
...
Anything else still not clear?
The war ended on that day, but it took weeks to hash out further details on how to answer to the logistic troubles of the clones and of the droids. In order to ensure the mistakes of the past weren't repeated, new laws were passed, fiscal pressure was eased, and at the end of the day, the army of the Republic was formed half and half of people coming from both sides of the previous conflict. Having been all toyed by the Sith, there was no love lost for them. Having been saved by the Jedi, there were no shortage of praise.
With the Senate building destroyed and turned into a Force Nexus of pulsing and twirling strength, a new location had to be decided for the Senate, while the old grounds would be turned into a temple of meditation for the Jedi.
"Peace talks have been finalized, Master," Ahsoka said, crossing her arms in front of her chest. "The reports are coming in, but-I have to ask if this is really required," as she spoke, she gestured at the Datapad containing information on this 'Death Star'.
"Unfortunately, there is a greater enemy incoming," her Master acquiesced with a nod, looking out of the window of his office in the Jedi Temple.
"How do you keep track of all these things," Ahsoka remarked, "I'll never know."
It had been months since the defeat of the Sith Master Darth Sidious, and Count Dooku's surrendering of the Separatist faction and subsequent disappearance, yet her Master had been surprisingly tight-lipped on a lot of things. His office was a mess however, there was little to it. He might have been a great Jedi Master, knowledgeable in the Force and everything else, but he was utterly incapable of putting everything back in its proper place once used.
The Cheshire Cat neatly snoozed on his desk, moving its tail around with a lazy motion. She wanted to pull it, but Mister Fluffles beat her to it and, jumping like the tabby orange cat he was, he bit down on it, making the purple-cat yelp and jump away with a loud hiss. As the two cats pursued one another, her Master hummed and wrote down another scribbled note.
"There is a Force technique to remember things," her Master pointed out. "First thing I learned. It's how I keep track of everything, and how I could rewrite from memory the books of my youth."
Ahsoka nodded, and then stopped right next to her Master. He looked down at her and then averted his gaze. Ahsoka kept staying there, and grinned mischievously. Her Master sighed, and brought a hand down, patting Ahsoka's head as the Padawan brought up the coffee cup for him to drink.
"It's surprising how much laxer you can make a Jedi Order when you're in the High Council," her Master pointed out after taking a sip of coffee. Ahsoka hummed with a grin stuck on her face, plastered there from the feeling of happiness her Master was going through by drinking the coffee. She shook her head to clear her mind, and walked towards the window.
"What happens next, Master?" she asked, looking at him.
"Well, as a wise man once said," her Master replied. "People can live without knowing what's about to happen five minutes from now."
"Maybe," Ahsoka acquiesced. "But if such a man was actually wise, he'd have asked for help."
"I knew you'd do the right thing," her Master pointed out, shrugging it off.
He looked back at her, and she couldn't help but wonder what would have happened if she hadn't. And then she realized that if she hadn't, her Master would have been struck down once the Force had gone away, and then Palpatine would have died next all the same...and there simply wouldn't have been her Master there in the room with her.
Her Master had been willing to bet his life on her doing the right thing.
He didn't need to ask for help, because he trusted her to do the right thing. He still hadn't answered her most important questions -most important of them all 'Just how much had he foreseen?', which remained willfully ignored, or sidestepped,
Ahsoka left her Master in his office, and stepped out to meet with Knight Skywalker and the other Knights. She didn't need to know everything about her Master in the end, and even if the war had ended, she knew he was still keeping secrets. Still, she'd trust him. She was going to prove to him she had conquered curiosity, and once she did, he'd probably tell her it was her final test and promote her to the rank of Knight.
Yes, that was probably what would happen.
Her Master disappeared the next day.
He disappeared, and he never returned.
A single note remained pinned to his great map of the galaxy, showcasing events, dates and things to do and avoid.
Unfortunately for him, a certain Padawan knew her Master's mind by then to the point where, when he was already inserting the coordinates for the Hyperjump away from Deep Core worlds and all the way towards the far depths of space, she calmly took the cockpit by his side.
"Using Taozin nodules to appear invisible to my senses," her Master remarked with a dry chuckle. "That's a no-no, Ahsoka."
"Disappearing in the night gets old after the first time, Master," Ahsoka acquiesced.
"So," Anakin Skywalker said, propping himself down from a hidden compartment over their head, "Where are we going?"
"Uh!" Knight Darra said as she stepped out of the closest closet, Taozin amulet around her neck just like Skywalker. "So I wasn't the only one who smelled fish out of the sea!"
"I cannot believe all of you," Ferus Olin said, his voice cross as he rolled out from beneath a panel. "I was going to stop him after finding out where he was going."
"Right," Anakin said. "Kuudere."
"I AM NOT A KUUDERE, YOU TSUNDERE!"
"I AM NOT A TSUNDERE! TAKE THAT-"
"All right, all right," Knight Darra said, "Come on boys, be nice or Master Shade won't give pats to neither of your hotheads."
"Darra," her Master said with a dreadful sigh, gesturing her closer. He then flicked her forehead.
"Ouch," the Knight winced. "Come on, Night," the girl pouted, "I know I can't make the doe-eyes anymore, but maybe your padawan can-"
"Pretty please," Ahsoka caught on, her eyes widening as she looked at her Master who simply stared back with a deadpan glare.
"Fine," her Master acquiesced. He turned to look at all of them, and raised his right hand to obtain silence. "Go sit down and strap your seat's belts on."
"Maybe I should drive-" Anakin began, only for everyone else -Ahsoka excluded- to scream a denial at the top of their lungs.
"I drove podracers when I was less than ten years old!" Anakin blurted out.
"I am the only one allowed to drive this spaceship," her Master retorted. "I found it on Dromund Kaas, it's mine, and if anyone of you dares to touch a single command from-"
"I'm driving," Ahsoka said, and with the coordinates inserted, all that it remained was to simply push a button.
Thus the Ebon Hawk sailed out in the galaxy.
To infinity and...beyond!
Author's Notes:
-Concerning Dooku-
He was one of the last disciples of Yoda, so Palpatine 'pitted' him against Shade repeatedly. Some form of 'Let's have fun sending the old apprentice versus the new one, hoping to corrupt the new one and make the old crone feel sick'.
On Felucia, Palpatine knew who would lead the assault, and having already known of Shade's prowess in the Force, deemed him a threat that had to be eliminated. Yet, his turning to the Dark Side gave him the idea to try to 'bring him to his side'. Due to his age, he could have been the Chosen One after all, rather than Skywalker.
On Florrum, Palpatine again pitted Dooku versus Shade, but this time to capture him -and turn him later.
Realizing how hard it would be due to the bond with his apprentice, Palpatine finally decided to deal with him by allowing the usage of the Cortosis enhanced droids -only a few survived past Shade's destruction of their forge, and in order to recover the Holocrons needed that Cad Bane had failed to achieve, more 'firepower' was required.
Count Dooku decided to bring General Grievous after Asaji's death. The reason was duplicitous. Around this time, a certain 'Plagueis' had contacted him, and told him of Sidious' real plans about Skywalker. There was no love lost between Master and Apprentice of the SIth, and since 'Plagueis' delivered information that the Count could use -stuff like who really was responsible for a couple of tragedies around the galaxy, who was manipulating what, and just what his 'expiration date' would be-, they both came off happy of the deal planned. Grievous would die and weaken the separatist, at the same time leaving Dooku the sole 'General in Command' of the army of droids, and thus the only one capable of discussing a ceasefire.
Since Plagueis needed -in Dooku's opinion- peace to advance his agenda, he was preferable to Palpatine who needed war.
Palpatine couldn't deal with Dooku's pigheaded rashness yet, because due to the 'peace talks' having started, he had to be always in his Chancellor Persona, which meant that when Padme and Ahsoka left, a certain Master Shade spoke with Senator Organa and showed him some very compromising footage of the chancellor. However, since removing the chancellor there and then would make the point of peace moot, Organa kept the footage hidden until the time came to reveal it and execute order 65 -remove the chancellor.
Then, in order to act while in secret, Master Shade 'severed' himself from the force, and in fact merely acquired a hefty dose of Taozin nodules to appear invisible, and with that invisibility -and away from Palpatine's senses- proceeded to make 'accidents' happen to the scum-senators.
This got Palpatine unnerved.
The peace proposal is passed on the Separatist world, and Dooku's thinking that Plagueis has disappeared off the radar. Until he appears on his shuttle and makes sure Dooku has the sole command of the droids, rather than the Separatist ambassadors.
Dooku plays the 'I'm not Dumb' card, and Shade knows he's playing that card with the Trap-Card Effect 'But When you Weaken we'll discuss plans'.
Since all Sith play that card for free.
Like, all Sith.
So then he goes back to Coruscant and hides in wait as the Jedi Council is alerted to get ready to rumble -they were already warned during the last report given by Shade, so they've had time to make peace and be prepared for the final countdown to peace.
It's tricky, and at any moment, anything can fail.
Count Dooku believes he's working for a honest to god Darth Plagueis capable of a lot of things and immortal.
Palpatine starts to feel nervousness. He hired Mother Talzin to try to stir shit up, but the Nightsisters that were supposed to attack aren't appearing. Maybe killed off in a dark alley -the Jedi killed them in the slums? Master Shade cut their heads off after following the bread crumps to keep an eye on his apprentice out of worry?-
Still, Palpatine's alone.
He tries to start a speech and make things go long, but the music plays.
A music he's never heard before.
He stumbles.
He expects Dooku to rebuke him for his words, to put up proposals that the Republic won't concede.
The unconditional surrender is absolutely the last thing he expects.
He can't do it.
He can't keep the war going with that.
He can start a new one, spark another, but he's forced to concede...and WHY. IS. THE. MUSIC. PLAYING?
And then come the words.
The words that he has heard day after day.
The words pronounced by a Master that tortured him while training him, a Master he never loved, nor liked. A teacher, yes, but never a Master.
And suddenly fear arrives.
Because guess what?
Canon Palpatine had an utter terror of Plagueis actually being still alive. He feared his old master, the master he had killed, and he feared the Chosen One, nothing less than Plagueis' experiment with the Force.
And when Dooku felt his fear, he knew that he had chosen a better master.
Meanwhile, order Sixty-Five happened.
And Palpatine watched the video that only someone like his Master could have known when to take. And he realized, or so he thought, that his Master had died on purpose to show him the futility of such an action. That he had recorded it so that at the moment of his triumph, he could bring him crashing down. The utter despair. A finger away from victory, and then the plummeting in the Abyss of Despair.
Fear gripped at his heart, and he reacted on the Force. He could have denied it. He could have said anything from CGI to Photoshop Coruscant Edition, but Count Dooku was smiling at him, and fear, rage, anger, they all bubbled in the man until he exploded.
Thus, when he revealed himself, he wanted to escape. He wanted to run.
But the Jedi blocked all exits save for one.
One where there was no living being in wait.
And so, Palpatine stepped into the final trap that anyone who wasn't being gripped by fear would have maybe -with his experience- avoided.
Afraid, traumatized, terrorized, he didn't attack the other Jedi working on the Shield of Light technique, but concentrated on 'His Master' who faced him off.
He could have killed a Jedi Master and escaped, but he did not.
He was too afraid to think.
Meanwhile, Dooku realized that he was free to do as he pleased now. There wasn't a Separatist cause, and there wasn't a war any longer. After having betrayed everything and everyone, the only thing that remained to him was the mere thought of having revenge, or of dying by his master's hand.
Instead he found the Togruta.
Seriously, Count Dooku was starting to hate Togruta.
A Togruta and her floating lightsabers.
Just like Plagueis fighting Palpatine.
And Count Dooku realizes he was played.
He chuckles and he laughs, and then decides he'll kill Master Yoda or die.
When the Dark Side of the Force brings Wonderland into play, it's the Wonderland inside of Shade's head, which is going on a rampage of passion and excitement as the final battle is there, and all can still happen.
Master Obi-Wan is with Anakin, so he's pacified, Knight Darra and Ferus are together, so they'll survive. And he trusts the Disney Princess magic on Ahsoka to guide her through.
But he is getting angrier and fiercer, because, in the end, Sidious needs to die.
As he roars and screams and uses the Darkshear -he went to the Valley of Souls, not just out of sightseeing reasons- he falls to the Dark side, and just as suspected, Ahsoka's the good Disney character, and 'springs him back up' like an anchor of light.
Because when Ahsoka steps to fight Wonderland, Shade's head goes 'THE FUCK YOU DOING STOP' and Wonderland stops.
Count Dooku is now defeated.
He committed crimes, he did much wrong, he believed in a wrong cause, he thought the Sith were the answer, but they weren't. And then Ahsoka tells him what a Count of Serenno his. What he is supposed to be.
And then he tells him he's wrong.
He's been so stupidly fixed on individualism -'A lone man should make the difference'- that he never understood that he didn't need to be alone to do it. He's been so centered on acquiring personal, private power to 'be the Good God that makes things Good' that he never thought about being the 'Good People's Persons that makes people good'.
And he leaves.
He leaves, and heads into exile, and he never comes back.
He's not worthy of being a Count, or of being a Jedi, or even a Sith.
He'll be Dooku for a while. Maybe he'll find a hut on Tattooine and become known as 'Old Man Dooku' or something like that, and he'll live in peace what remains of his life.
Or maybe he'll try to make amends, and help save lives.
Certainly, when the Vong will arrive, he'll help and maybe he'll die in battle, a smile on his lips for having helped, or be pardoned and find himself sharing a table with Master Yoda, old and cranky but still alive because 'it cannot die what can forever be green' as the Vong are defeated.
...
Anything else still not clear?
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OverReactionGuy
Verified Sanity
Yes.
Where did shade get the shotgun? I do not think anyone makes those things anymore.
I would totally read an "Old Man Dooku" fic.
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Accelerated_Charged_Particle_Array_Gun
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Fabula Amanti
I want a Grimoire, but I got books.
- Location
- Singapore
Great ending, only one peeve. WHY NO SONG EARLIER!? It would've been EPIC in my head.
Well, let the Adventures of Night Shade and his Dere Crew Commence.
Well, let the Adventures of Night Shade and his Dere Crew Commence.
- Location
- https://discord.gg/z9tBvbh
Of course, now that the story is utterly completed, you know what must be done.
Onward.
To TvTropes!
*wink wink*
Onward.
To TvTropes!
*wink wink*
Dragonskyt
Ashen one, hearest thou my voice, still?
- Location
- Kiln of the First Flame
This crew of misfits will undoubtedly end up traveling through space, forever to enter adventure to adventure.
From Star Trek to Mass Effect.
From Battlestar Galactica to Babylon 5.
From Stargate Atlantis to... an alternative universe Star Wars?
All while playing Dungeons and Dragons.
From Star Trek to Mass Effect.
From Battlestar Galactica to Babylon 5.
From Stargate Atlantis to... an alternative universe Star Wars?
All while playing Dungeons and Dragons.
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